Introduction

The game Exploding Kittens (©Exploding Kittens 2018,

Los Angeles, California), created by Elan Lee (XBOX,
ARGs); Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) e Shane Small
(XBOX, Marvel), distributed in Italy by ASMODEE Italia
Srl, has been one of the most exciting and intriguing bord
games I have ever played. I allowed myself to modify a
little bit some of the rules, so that the game can result
much more strategic and highly competitive. Thanks to the
creators of this amazing game
Roberto Spinelli

1
 How it works

In the deck of cards are some Exploding Kittens. You play the game by putting the deck face down
and taking turns drawing cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten.

BASICALLY, IF YOU EXPLODE, YOU LOSE.

And you’re full of incendiary loser sadsauce.

IF YOU DON'T EXPLODE,

YOU WIN!

And you’re full of greatness, good job buddy!

AND ALL OF THE

OTHER CARDS

Will lessen your chances of getting exploded by Exploding Kittens.

You could use a See the Future Card to peek at the top few cards in the
Draw Pile. If that reveals an Exploding Kitten, you could then use a Skip
Card to end your turn and avoid drawing it.

2
 Setup
Remember that these rules are valid for all types of decks that include one or more expansions I, II, III
and Zombie Kittens.

1. First, remove all the Tower of Power cards, Exploding Kittens and Imploding Kittens from the
deck.
2. Shuffle the remaining cards and give 8 cards faced down to each player.
3. Draw other 8 cards from the deck and put them in the Tower of Power
Crown (do this for each Tower you have).
4. Count the number of Exploding Kittens and Imploding Kittens that you have
available, insert in the deck the Exploding Kittens and Imploding Kittens, so
that summing up the number of these cards, it is the number of the players
minus 1. Now count the Streaking Kitten cards and add the same number
of Exploding Kittens (not Imploding Kittens) of the number of Streaking
Kittens.
5. Put the Tower of Power cards in the deck.
6. Shuffle the deck and put it face down in the center of the table.
7. Pick a player to go first and start playing (some methods to select could be the most beautiful
mustache, the worst smell, the smallest kidney etc.).

Take your turn

1. Do one of these moves:
a. Pass without playing a card.
b. Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile and
follow the instructions on the card. After you follow the
instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play
as many cards as you’d like.

2. End your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it’s
not an Exploding Kitten.
3. (This is different from most games in that you END YOUR TURN by drawing a card).
4. The game goes on turn by turn clockwise around the table.

REMEMBER

Play as many or as few cards as you’d like, then draw a card

to end your turn.

3
 DYING
If you draw an Exploding Kitten and you don’t have a Zombie Kitten or a Defuse (or have one and
choose not to play it), you are Dead. Put the Exploding Kitten that killed you face up in front of you and
keep the rest of your cards in your hand.

If you draw an Exploding Kitten, you DO NOT have to play a Zombie Kitten or a Defuse even if you
have one. You might choose to intentionally die to avoid drawing cards for a while and to shield
yourself from other players. Just hope another player will eventually bring you back into the game!

BEING DEAD
If you explode you die.

Dead players don’t take a turn. If any Living player plays a Zombie Kitten, they must choose one Dead
player to bring back into the game.

Even though Dead players don’t take turns, they can still play any card with NOW in the title or a Nope
card to affect the game! (These cards can be played even when it’s not your turn).

You cannot steal cards from Dead players unless a card specifically allows you to (i.e., you cannot play
a Favor or a pair of Cat Cards on a Dead player).

Whenever you die for a reason different than drawing a bomb, remove an Exploding Kitten from the
deck, put it in front of the dead player and shuffle the deck.

COMING BACK TO LIFE

Whenever a player chooses to play a Zombie Kitten to save themselves from exploding, they must
bring a Dead player back into the game.

If they choose to bring you back into the game, they will put their Zombie Kitten in the Discard Pile and
then they will take the Exploding Kitten that killed them AND the Exploding Kitten in front of you and
put both of them separately back into the Draw Pile anywhere they’d like in secret (the two Exploding
Kittens can be put in two different locations). You are now a Living player and must take your turns as
normal.

You CANNOT play Zombie Kitten if there are no dead players. If you play a Zombie Kitten and there is
more than one Dead player, you must choose one of the Dead players to bring back into the game.

4
 Ending the game
The last player who hasn't exploded wins the game.

5
 Rules and effects of the cards
Exploding Kitten
You must show this card immediately. Unless you have a Defuse Card or a Zombie Kitten card, you’re
dead. Put this card face up in front of you and keep your hand of cards hidden.

Defuse
If you drew an Exploding Kitten, you can (but do not have to) play this card instead of dying. Place your
Defuse Card in the Discard Pile. Put the Exploding Kitten in the Deck anywhere you like in secret.

Attack
End your turn without drawing a card and force the next player to take two turns in a row. The victim of
this card will do his turn, then another one.

If the victim of an Attack plays an Attack, he skips one of his turns and at the end of his last turn the
next player must take two turns.

If you play multiple attacks to skip multiple turns, these attacks must be summed up, so that for an
example, if you skip two turns with two attacks, the next player will take 4 turns!

Skip
Immediately end your turn without drawing a card.

If you play a Skip Card in response to an Attack Card, it only ends 1 of the turns. Playing multiple Skip
cards would end multiple turns.

Favor
Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you.

Shuffle
Shuffle the Draw Pile without viewing the cards until told to stop (Useful when you know there’s an
Exploding Kitten coming).

See the future

Privately view the top 3 cards from the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order. Don’t show the
cards to the other players.

6
 Cat cards
These cards are useless on their own, but they can be used in special combos. Playing a combination
of identical Cat Cards is not available only for Cat Cards, but ANY COMBINATION of cards with the
same name (like two Shuffle, Skip, Defuse, if you want, etc.).

A pair of two identical cards gives you the right to steal a random card from an opponent chosen by
you.

A three of a kind gives you the right to choose an opponent and declare a card. If he has it, he must
give it to you, otherwise you receive nothing and you just have to discard your three cards. If you see
the opponent cheating, he must leave the game (discard his cards, put the Exploding Kittens that he
could have in the deck, be sure the number of Bombs follow the rule linked to the new player number).

If you play 5 different cards (5 cards with different names), take the discard pile and chose one single
card that you like (take it quickly so that no one can use a NOPE! card against you).

Do not take cards from dead players.

YOU CAN use an Exploding Kitten for combos, but in this case, you must shuffle it in the deck.

Ignore the card effects when you use combos.

Imploding Kitten
When this card is drawn, put it back into the Draw Pile FACE UP anywhere you’d like in secret. Do not
use a Defuse Card. The card has a white border so when it's faced up everyone can see it coming.
When you have no choice but to draw this card face up, you immediately implode and are Dead. This
card cannot be defused.

When the Imploding Kitten implodes and kills a player, it must be put in front of the dead player just like
an Exploding Kitten would be.

If there is an Imploding Kitten face up on top of the deck and you play a Shuffle Card, shuffle the deck
under the table so that you still have a chance of shuffling the Imploding Kitten back to the top of the
deck without realizing it.

You can still come back to life even if killed by this card.

If you die from the Imploding Kitten and return to the game, the Imploding Kitten card will be placed
back into the deck face up.

A Zombie Kitten cannot be used on a face up Imploding Kitten.

Feral Cat
Use this as any Cat Card (any card that is powerless on its own). This card cannot be used as a non-
Cat Card (Shuffle, Attack, etc.).

7
 Targeted Attack
End a turn without drawing and choose any player (even yourself) to take 2 turns in a row. The victim
of this card will do his turn, then another one.

If the victim of a Targeted Attack or an Attack uses a Targeted Attack, he can skip one of his turns and
at the end of his last turn the chosen player must play two turns.

The game goes on from the player next to the victim, but only if he survives. If you play 2 or more
Targeted Attacks:

• If you chose only one opponent, at the end of the total of the turns the game continues as
usual.
• If you chose more players, these will play one after the other in the order of the turns,
respecting the number of turns they must do.

In case of explosion of one of these the game continues from the player next to the last person that
played.

Alter the future 3x

Privately view the top three cards from the Draw Pile and rearrange them in any order you’d like.
Return them to the top of the Draw Pile face down, then continue with your turn.

Draw from the bottom

End your turn by drawing the bottom card from the Draw Pile.

Reverse
Reverse the order of play and end your turn without drawing a card.

If there are only two players, this card acts like a Skip card.

If you play this card after you’ve been attacked, the order of play is reversed, but you’ve only ended 1
of your turns.

Playing multiple Reverse cards for consecutive turns will reverse the order multiple times.

Streaking Kitten
While holding this card you can secretly hold 1 Exploding Kitten without exploding… BUT:

• If you discard or lose Streaking Kitten, Exploding Kitten will explode in your hand and must be
defused, or you die.
• If another player steals or receives the Exploding Kitten from you, he must defuse it or die.
• You CAN’T hold Imploding Kitten.

8
 Super skip
End your turn without drawing a card. If you’re supposed to take multiple turns, end them all (useful
when you’ve been attacked).

Swap top and bottom

Swap the top and bottom cards of the Draw Pile without looking.

See the future 5X

Privately view the top 5 cards from the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order. Don't show the
cards to the other players.

Alter the future 5X

Privately view the top 5 cards from the Draw Pile and rearrange them in any order you'd like. Don't
show the cards to the other players.

Garbage collection
Every player who has cards (including the player who played this card) must choose 1 card from their
hand to secretly insert into the Draw Pile. Then, shuffle the entire Draw Pile.

Dead players are not affected by this card.

Catomic Bomb
Remove all the Exploding Kittens from the Draw Pile so that everyone can see them. Then, shuffle the
Draw Pile, and return the Exploding Kittens face down on top. End ONLY ONE turn without drawing a
card.

It doesn’t work with Imploding Kitten.

Mark
Pick a target player. Randomly pick 1 of their cards and 'mark' it by returning the card to their hand
facing out to the other players. The card is still part of their hand (and they can look at it), but it must
stay marked until it is played or stolen.

If a marked card is stolen, it doesn’t stay marked.

9
 Curse of the cat butt
Choose a player. This player must put his cards faced down on the table and shuffle them. He will play
blindly until he draws a card. He can play the cards he has, by choosing randomly from the cards on
the table, if the chosen card is useless in that moment, it will be discarded.

If you choose a usable card, continue normally with its effect.

If the player survives, continue the playing order normally. BUTT…

• If you draw Exploding Kitten and you know to have Streaking Kitten in your hand, shuffle it on
the table and continue your turns blindly.
• If you know to have a Defuse, select from your faced down cards. If you take a different card
from the Defuse, discard it without using its effect, and continue until you find a defuse. After
defusing, you still can’t see your cards.
• If you play blindly an Exploding Kitten, you must defuse it with the process up here or you die.
• If you are SO FUCKING UNLUCKY and you play an Exploding Kitten while trying to defuse an
Exploding Kitten, defuse both of them or die.
• If a player marks you, the marked card is the only one you can see.
• If a player uses a Favor, give him a random card.
• If a player uses a three of a kind, see your cards, give him the card if you have it, put the cards
again faced down and shuffle them.
• Choose blindly if someone uses a Garbage Collection
• Choose blindly if someone uses Potluck.
• If someone uses I’ll take that, even if the card is usable for you, you can’t see your cards
(because of course the card is not yours).
• If you die you are a blind dead player, you can still play as dead but blind, the effect will end
only by being alive again and drawing a card different than Exploding Kitten.

NOpe!
OK, this time the things become a bit tricky. Block any kind of action, INCLUDED the activation of
Exploding Kitten, Imploding Kitten, Defuse or Zombie Kitten of any player (YOU CAN’T USE THE
NOPE! CARD AS A DEFUSE, but you can save a player by using it). Imagine that every card (or
couple or any special combination) doesn’t exist anymore because of the activation of this card.

You can use a NOPE! on another NOPE! so it is inactivated and becomes a YES! And so on.

You can use a NOPE! In ANY moment of the game, even in opponent’s turns and even if you are
dead.

Any blocked card is lost and goes in the draw pile (of course if it is a bomb, you must reshuffle it in the
deck).

While activating this card you must emphasize its activation (so it is funnier).

When blocking Zombie Kitten, you can choose to block the defusal of the Exploding Kitten, or the
resurrection of a player, if you want to block both the effect, you’ll need two NOPE!, this mean that you
can NOPE! yourself, and decide to use only one of the effects of Zombie Kitten!!!

NOPE! loses its effect, and must be discarded, if you use it after the action that you want to stop is
concluded, or if you use it too late, so you must use it instantaneously.

10
 BArking kitten
Place in front of you this card, ask to the other players for this card, if they have it, that player will
become your target. He will give you RANDOMLY half of his cards. Combine those cards with yours
and then give him back BY YOUR CHOICE the same number of cards he gave you (even the same
cards he gave to you if you want), discard both the Barking Kittens.

If no one has the second Barking Kitten, you must put yours on the table in front of you. You CAN’T
use it anymore, but you will be an easy target for anyone (you idiot, now you are exposed).

If you have Both of the Barking Kitten, you CHOOSE your target.

Yes, you can use a NOPE! on Barking Kitten effect, but it would have been too ez, so, since these are
TWO cards, you must use TWO NOPE! to block them.

• If taking the random cards from the opponent you take an Exploding Kitten, no problem, you
MUSTN’T defuse it. You can give it to your opponent when you give him the cards back. In this
case the victim is save if he still has the Streaking Kitten (or you give it back… but, just why?),
otherwise he must defuse it or die.
• If you take a Streaking Kitten and he has an Exploding Kitten, he must defuse it (he is safe if he
has another Streaking Kitten in the hand).

If you are playing with more than one version of Barking Kitten:

• If when by declaring Barking Kitten, more than one player has the same card, take the cards
from ALL OF THEM. And play as already written.
• Use a NOPE! for each Barking Kitten simultaneously activated to stop the effect.
• If you have more than two Barking Kittens, you can use only a couple to apply the effect.

I’ll take that

Play this card faced up in front of a player you choose. At his next turn, take the card he draws. If he
draws an Exploding Kitten or an Imploding Kitten, it is now your responsibility.

Each player can be targeted only once simultaneously.

You can use this card on multiple opponents. The card stays permanently on the target even if he dies,
but can be blocked in any moment by a NOPE!, the card is still yours after all, but you can NOPE! it
too.

Even if active, it can still be stolen (losing its effect), or used for combination, put in the Tower of Power
for a change, used for Garbage collection or Potluck (in these cases it loses its effect).

Personal Attack
Finish the current turn and take other three. As already said, attacks can be SUMMED UP, so that
combination of different attacks can increase the number of turns in a row you can do.

11
 Potluck
Starting with you and going around the table in the direction of play, each player must put a card of
their choice face down on top of the Draw Pile.

Tower of Power
Put on the Tower of Power, put in it the 8 cards decided at the beginning of the
game. For ANY KIND OF STEALING, you can refuse to give a card in your hand
and let him draw randomly from the tower, saving the cards in your hand.

Once per turn you can take those cards, see them and substitute one card with one
of yours. Then put the new cards in the Tower. YOU CAN’T remove the Tower for
the rest of the game and (I can’t believe I’m saying that) YOU CAN’T NOPE THE
CARD TOWER OF POWER (that’s the only exception in the game).

Don’t put an Exploding Kitten in the Tower.

If a player has the Tower of Power and dies, they keep the Tower of Power. If the
player later becomes Living, the Tower of Power will take effect again.

If a player uses Tower of power card and all the available crown are on the
heads of other players, choose one of them and take that crown with all the
cards in it.

If the tower is removed from your head or drops for any reason (even if it is serious), you are OUT.
YOU CAN USE both the tower and the CONE.

Alter the future 3X NOW

Privately view the top three cards from the Draw Pile and rearrange them in any order you’d like.
Return them to the top of the Draw Pile face down, then continue with your turn.

You can use this card in ANY MOMENT OF THE GAME, even if you are dead, once declared the other
player must freeze while you apply the effect. If someone moves, is OUT (you can still make small
adjustments). Of course, you can NOPE! this card.

Bury
Play this card, then end your turn by drawing a card. After looking at it, put it back into the Draw Pile
anywhere you’d like in secret. You can choose the position of the card and you can change the verse
of it making it visible (of course you can do that with Imploding Kitten, so that you can activate or
deactivate it).

12
 Share the future
Privately view the top 3 cards in the Draw Pile and rearrange them in any order you’d like. Show these
cards to the next player before returning them to the top of the Draw Pile face down, then continue
with your turn.

If the next player is Dead, the three cards will still be shared with that Dead player.

Zombie Kitten
If you drew an Exploding Kitten, you can (but do not have to) play this card instead of exploding. Place
your Zombie Kitten Card on the Discard Pile. You must choose one of the dead players and bring them
back into the game.

You CANNOT use Zombie Kitten if there are NO DEAD PLAYERS!!!

Next, take the Exploding Kitten and, without reordering or viewing the other cards, secretly put it back
in the Draw Pile anywhere you’d like. If you bring another player back from the Dead, you’ll do the
same thing with the Exploding Kitten Card face up in front of them. (This means you’ll be putting 2
Exploding Kittens back into the deck at once, each in its own secret location).

Your turn is over after playing this card.

Clairvoyance now
Play this card once another player has defused an Exploding Kitten. You will get to see where they add
the Exploding Kitten Card(s) into the deck.

You can use this card in ANY MOMENT OF THE GAME, even if you are dead, once declared the other
player must freeze while you apply the effect. If someone moves, is OUT (you can still make small
adjustments). Of course, you can NOPE! this card.

Shuffle now
Shuffle the Draw Pile without viewing the cards until told to stop. (Useful when you know there’s an
Exploding Kitten coming).

You can use this card in ANY MOMENT OF THE GAME, even if you are dead, once declared the other
player must freeze while you apply the effect. If someone moves, is OUT (you can still make small
adjustments). Of course, you can NOPE! this card.

Feed the dead NOW

Pick a Dead player. All Living players with cards (except you) must pick a card of their choice and give
it to that player. You cannot play this card if there are no Dead players.

Do not give an Exploding Kitten to the dead player

13
You can use this card in ANY MOMENT OF THE GAME, even if you are dead, once declared the other
player must freeze while you apply the effect. If someone moves, is OUT (you can still make small
adjustments). Of course, you can NOPE! this card.

Clone
Play this card onto the Discard Pile and it becomes whatever card is beneath it and adopts the rules of
that card.

You can use Clone on another Clone, cloning the card beneath the first Clone.

You can use Clone to clone a “NOW” card, dead or alive.

Grave Robber
All Dead players with cards must choose one card from their hand to shuffle into the Draw Pile. You
cannot play this card if there are no Dead players.

Dig Deeper
Draw the top card from the Draw Pile, look at it, and decide if you want to keep it. If so, put it in your
hand. Otherwise, you MUST draw the next card in the Draw Pile no matter what it is. (Then put the
card you decided not to draw back on top of the Draw Pile). Your turn is now over.

Attack of the dead

End your turn without drawing a card. Force the next player to take three turns for each Dead player.

If the victim of an Attack plays an Attack of the Dead, he skips ONLY ONE of his turns, when they
finish the turns done, the next player will be affected by the Attack of the Dead.

All the attacks can be summoned, to be clear the number of turns could be infinite, for an example:

There are 13 dead players, and you played a Personal Attack, this means that you must do three
turns. You decide to skip those with three Attack of the dead… At this point the attacks that the next
player will do are:

3 × 3 × 13 = 117

And yes… all of them would disappear with a single Super Skip

14
 Using the cone of shame
The cone of shame must be put on by
the first player unable to save himself
from an explosion. He is safe but must
take the cone for the entire game. He
dies if for any reason he removes it.

Of course, for the cone, like the

Tower, NO ONE can touch it. It
means that NO ONE can force you
to remove it.

Final Notes
There are a lot of situations where is impossible to check if the players are not cheating. You are
anyway NEVER allowed to show, control, declare personal cards. It’s important then, that a player
(eliminated or external) controls the game, with the rules in his hand, so that the game is correct for
everyone.

Thank you for the attention.

This version of the game has been created by Roberto Spinelli.

15